Malta women pick up first win at European Junior Championships

The Malta women’s U-17 national team picked up their first win at the Women’s European Junior Championships when they beat Romania 11-8 in Sibenik, Croatia, on Monday.

Anthony Farrugia’s girls were coming into the match on the back of two heavy defeats against Croatia (35-4) and Germany (25-5) over the weekend.

But against Romania, the Maltese girls knew they had the ability to break their duck in the competition and produced a gallant display.

The Romanians took a first-session 1-0 lead, but the Maltese fought back strongly and managed to score three times without reply in the second session through a brace from Martha Perici Ferrante and Kai Agius to go into the interval 3-1 up.

The third session third out to be a hard-fought affair with the Maltese girls edging it 4-3, with their goals coming from Zaira Bartolo, Kaia Agius (2), and Perici Ferrante to head into the final session 7-4 ahead.

The Romanians tried to throw everything they have against the Maltese team but their indiscipline in the water ended any hopes they had of a comeback.

In fact, the Maltese girls preserved their three-goal advantage after sharing eight goals with their opponents. The scorers for Malta in the fourth session where Perici Ferrante, Agius, from a penalty, Bartolo, and Elaya Montfort.

With this win, the Maltese girls have ensured they will not finish bottom of the group ahead of their final assignment against Russia, one of the tournament favourites.